Asian-Canadian artists and activists talk about how the myth of the model minority kept them from discovering their life passions.
Why the stereotype of Asians as model minorities is harmfulThese are the pervasive stereotypes of thesome Asian Canadians and immigrants say plagues every aspect of their lives, keeping them from being seen and living as their full authentic selves.
"The toll that the model minority takes on you is very insidious because, from the outside, it just looks like you're a happy, successful person," said Zoe Si, a writer and illustrator in Vancouver."It didn't occur to me that the fact people didn't see the other parts of me, that they only saw me as a Chinese kid who was good at school, was a bad thing," said Si.But when she began working as a litigator as an adult, Si felt she was constantly underestimated.
"Being able to step fully into a career as an artist has changed me," said Si. "I never knew that this could be my career path." In an instant, he says he realized that it was hard for even friends to see him outside of the identity of an immigrant or visible minority. Kimberley Wong, pictured crocheting in their home in East Vancouver, says their queer artists' community helped them unlearn the model minority myth.Kimberley Wong knew at an early age they would never fit the mould of a model minority.
Learning about their family's Cantonese ancestry and the history of Chinese migration to build the railway, a major colonial project, helped them make sense of the mould they were trying to break. The myth "pits one culture over another …and it's all centred around whiteness," said Trinh, now the artistic director of Vancouver Poetry House.
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